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Press Release | August 9, 2021

Jerome Powell Spent Years At Union-Busting Private Equity Giant

2020 Election/TransitionFederal ReservePrivate EquityRevolving Door
Jerome Powell Spent Years At Union-Busting Private Equity Giant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Max Moran, moran@therevolvingdoorproject.org 

Revolving Door Project published research today outlining Jerome (Jay) Powell’s career in private equity before he shifted into public policy. During his time at the Carlyle Group, the firm repeatedly engaged in union-busting layoffs, climate-damaging fossil fuel investment projects, and more. 

Powell also founded his own private equity firm, worked for an environmental private equity firm, and served in George H.W. Bush’s Treasury Department in between stints at investment bank Dillon Read. Powell holds between $6 million and $25 million in financial giant BlackRock, which is the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels.

Revolving Door Project Personnel Research Director Max Moran said, “A Fed Chair who thinks like a private equity mogul is not a reliable ally of workers. Anyone who’s ever seen their workplace upended by private equity strip-mining can tell you that. Powell’s record on the Fed shows he is flighty at best when it comes to aiding any societal actors besides Wall Street interests. In a time of massive inequality, climate catastrophe, and centuries-old racial injustice, we shouldn’t settle for more of the same.”

Full text of the research can be found at this link. All of the Revolving Door Project’s work on the Federal Reserve and Jerome Powell can be found here.

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PHOTO CREDIT: “Brookings Fellow Douglas J. Elliott and Jerome H. Powell, governor on the Federal Reserve Board, discuss world finance” by BrookingsInst is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

2020 Election/TransitionFederal ReservePrivate EquityRevolving Door
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